Vow unveils southern hemisphere’s ‘largest’ cultivated meat facility, plans Singapore launch

• Australian alternative protein company Vow has opened what it says is the largest cultivated meat facility in the southern hemisphere, in Alexandria in Sydney. 
• The Vow Factory 1 will produce “as much as 30 tonnes” of cultivated meat annually. (For reference, the average standard car weighs about 1.5 tons.)
• The company says it has started development on Factory 2, which will be “100x larger” than Factory 1.
• Vow plans to launch a yet-to-be-named cultivated meat product in Singapore by the end of the year.

Why it matters:

Vow is best known for its “exotic” approach to alt-protein. The company develops cultivated meat from the cells of kangaroo, water buffalo and alpaca, to name a few, instead of the usual chicken or beef. Its library of genetic materials from all types of animals considerably widens the number of potential options for cultivated meat products.

“With a technology like cultured meat we won’t need to think in terms of what we already consume,” co-founder George Peppou told AFN last year. “Instead, we can start with first principles: what protein would we choose if we could eat anything?” 

Vow must secure regulatory approval to sell its products before anyone can actually buy them. The company looks to do that first in Singapore. Vow said last year that regulators in Asia will likely move faster than in other regions.

Singapore is currently the only country in the world to approve the sale of cultivated meat, and that’s only for one company: Eat Just‘s GOOD Meat division. 

Vow already submitted its first product for regulatory approval and aims to launch in Singapore at the end of 2022. When it does, the newly opened Factory 1 will handle commercial production for the “extremely delicious” first product. As to what the actual product is, Vow will announce that news “a month from now.”

Factory 2 is slated to be complete in the second half of 2024.